Before he was the Assistant Chief Flight Instructor for the School of Aviation, or working for the School in any capacity at all, Byron Semrau was a student here. He first studied economics and philosophy at the University, but found the job market for the combination lackluster and began looking around for something else. “I jumped right in [to aviation], didn’t have a lot of experience in it at all,” he said. He described the field as exciting, something that piqued his interest.
The commercial airline life did not appeal to him, and he began working for the School as a flight instructor in 2019. Before he knew it, he was falling in love with teaching. “You see a lot of reward in your student’s progress, from not knowing anything in aviation, kind of like I was, to being proficient pilots and seeing them going to the airlines.”
The day-to-day of Semrau’s job is weather dependent, though not as much as it once was. Semrau became Assistant Chief Flight Instructor only recently, and prior to this, he served as a full-time flight instructor. In that capacity, when he was at the University, he was there to fly, and how much time he could be in the air with students was tied up in the weather. Now, his days are a little more relaxed, with his time spread around to more than just being in an airplane with students. This semester he’s teaching the CFI class, and last semester he taught the multi-engine course. “On a typical day, I usually fly probably two to three hours, and then I teach,” he said. Emails and other administrative work get scattered throughout. And there’s always time dedicated to answering questions. “I don’t get anywhere without somebody saying ‘Hey, I got a question for you.’”
Semrau also serves as the safety officer for the OU Aviation Department.
He says that his favorite part of the job is watching students struggle, no matter how strange that sounds, because of how rewarding it is when they succeed. “It is very hard, there’s a lot of work that goes into being an aviation professional. You have to know all the rules and regulations, you have to be proficient in your own skills, you have to be current as far as the regulations you have to maintain… I like seeing people get into the airplane for the first time and not have any idea what’s going on, and then three months later they’re out there and they can go rent an airplane and fly by themselves.”
Becoming a pilot introduced Semrau to a new world, one he describes as “really friendly.” “It’s a different world that people don’t even realize exists… The aviation people, really try to take care of each other. They’re always looking for new friends or new airplanes to fly. For the most part, aviation people are just excited about flying, about seeing new places and flying new places.”
In his free time, Semrau doesn’t do much flying. “Some people, want to fly and they want to fly. When they’re done training people, they have a plan and they want to fly on the weekend. On the weekend, I just like to take it slow.” He enjoys cooking and eating good food and traveling. Lately, he’s been working on making his own spaghetti sauce. He also enjoys baking and the science of it and reading poetry and philosophy.
By Kathryn Gebauer
Article Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2023
